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RUSSELL T 

OF PEITSYLVANIA, 



m THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, 
APRIL 30, 1864, 



on 



THE BILL TO GUARANTEE TO CERTAIN STATES WHOSE 

GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN OVERTHROWN, A 

REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 

McGILL & WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERa 

1864. 



W EXWttlKiE 



j^fi d ., iHU 









RECONSTRUCTION OF REBEL STATES. 



SPEECH 



HON. M. E. THAYER, 

OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

DELIVERED 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 20, 186 L 



The House having under consideration the Bill to gu.arantee to certain States whose 
governments have been overthrown a republican form of government — 

Mr. THAYER said: 

Mr. Speaker : Our experience, in the solution of the political prob- 
lems which have arisen out of the war, should teach us at least this 
lesson, that however great at first sight may appear to be the diffi- 
culties which confront ns, a wise, prudent, and patriotic use of the 
powers delegated b,y the people of the United States to the national 
Government is sufficient to overcome them. . When the war broke 
out, we were immediately encompassed by a multitude of new, 
stratige, and difficult questions, all of them growing out of the pecu- 
liarities of apolitical system for the most part new in the history of 
man, and for which no exact precedent or parallel had existed in the 
experience of the world. This system rested upon a written Consti- 
tution at once so complex in its structure, yet so simple in its practi- 
cal operation, that to this day it has not ceased to perplex the states- 
men and politicians of the Old AVorld, who, accustomed to more 
arbitrary forms of governnient, were unable to comprehend entirely 
a system presenting all the features of a great and powerful nation- 
ality, yet embracing within itself, for the purposes of local government, 
thirty-four subordinate States, each with its three departments of 
government modeled in exact accordance with their great pattern, 
and all, until tlie rebellion, m.oving in harmonious action with the 
supreme national sovereignty, and sending to it, as rivers send to the 
sea, their combined strength and power. Sir, the history of the hu- 
man race does not exhibit any monument of ingenuity at all com- 
parable with this great framework of American political society, 
wdiich, notwithstanding its magnitude, the extent of its operations, . 
its complicated arrangements, and the greatness of the resources it 
conmianded and of the power it wielded, yet rested upon the shoul- 
ders of the people as lightly as the atmosphere wdiicli they breathed. 
It was a law of necessity that when traitors applied the torch to a 



portion of this great and beautiful structure, much ruin sliouhl ensue, 
and that much perplexity should be felt in putting out the conilagra- 
tion which their disappointed ambition had kindled, and in rebuild- 
ing the waste places which their insane fury had destroyed. When 
the ruin is repaired and the ediiice rises again before the eyes of the 
nations in renovated splendor, the loyal people of this country will 
tlemand that those persons shall not again pass its protecting portal 
or enter its sacred precincts until they are purged of their treason, 
have cast oii" their political vices, and given bonds for our future 
security. 

From the beginning it was apparent that there existed in this 
country a school of i)()liticians whose principles were hostile to the 
perpetuity of our system, and whoso favorite dogma of State sov- 
ereignty was absolutely inconsistent with the existence of the national 
Government. The baneful influence of these principles was foreseen 
by the great men who were principally instrumental in the formation 
of the Constitution and who labored to protect it against thera. 
Therefore it was that Hamilton declared: "A national Government 
ought to be able to support itself without the aid or interference of 
the State governments, and therefore it is necessary to have full sov- 
ereirjnt^.'" And therefore it was that Madison exclaimed: "I am for 
a national Government, though the idea of Federal is, in my view, the 
same ; " and on another occasion when he declared, '' 1 apprehend 
the greatest danger is from encroachment of the States on the na- 
tional Government. -This apprehension is justly founded on the ex- 
perience of ancient confederacies, and our own is proof of it." 
Therefore it was that the fathers of the Kepublic in making a Con- 
stitution, made, as the result of this war will demonstrate, not a 
league between States, but a Government for the American people ; 
a Government which exists not by the consent of the sections but by 
the will of the majority of the whole people; which makes laws not 
for States but for a nation, and whose authority passes over State 
lines with as little notice of them as the winds which blow across 
them. The idea of State sovereignt}- as understood by the school of 
politicians referred to is fundainentall}' opposed to the Constitution 
of the United States, and as inconsistent with it as the proposition 
that in the material world two dillerent substances can occupy in 
space the same position at the same time. 

But from the foundation of the Government to the present time 
this pestilent heresy has notwithstanding had its disciples and propa- 
gandists. When the Democratic party, in the convention of I80O, 
adopted the resolutions of ITi^S, which affirmed the right of a State 
to interpose its autlir)rity against the acts of the Dnited States, 
(which is the very germ of secession,) it became apparent that the 
time must come when this false principle must grapple in deadly eon- 
rtict with the true theory of the Government, and one or the other 
of thera perish in the encounter. That time has come, and the war 
which now desolates the laud is the legitimate offspring of this per- 



nicions error. I know, sir, liow much the ahorninahle instltntion of 
human sLavery had to do with the origin of the war. I know that 
in our present miseries we but realize those fearful apprehensions 
expressed by Mr. Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia, when he ex- 
claimed, "Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God 
is just." Slavery was undoubtedly the proximate cause of the war; 
nevertheless it was only its foster-mother. It was born of State sov- 
ereignty, though suckled into strength and vigor by this monster of 
cruelty. Indeed, the parent itself was chiefly indebted to the same 
sustenance for the dangerous proportions to which it grew, for slav- 
ery encouraged and exalted it as the necessary bulwark of its own 
existence. . Hence, in the southern States this doctrine of State sov- 
ereignty has for the last thirty years been a favorite idea, and has 
come to be a principle so generally believed in that the people of 
those States have not hesitated to east off their allegiance as they 
would a worn-out garment, and at the command of a few political 
demagogues to precipitate the country into the horrors of the present 
civil war. 

The growth of this idea in the southern States kept pace with the 
rapid corruption of the public sentiment upon the subject of slavery. 
As slavery was at first humble, then apologetic, then respectable, 
then justifiable, then necessary, then a blessing, then divinely ap- 
pointed, then ambitious, then aggressive, then domineering, then* 
insulting, then rebellious, so the doctrine of State sovereignty was at 
first a political theory, then an active principle, then a political dog- 
ma, then a party war-cry, then a conspiracy against the Government, 
then a usurping power, then an armed rebel and public enem}-. As 
slavery impaired the moral sense of the people, so State sovereignty 
corrujited their political faith ; and their combined influences de- 
stroyed their loyalt}' to their country and drove them into the des- 
perate war which they now wage against it. Both evils must be 
forever extirpated before the country can enter again upon a career 
of permanent peace and prosperitj-. The bill now before the House, 
while it aims to extinguish forever one cause of the existing rebel- 
lion, has for its chief object, as I understand it, the vindication of 
the national authority and the assertion of its perpetual sovereignty ; 
and for this reason should command the support of every man who 
believes in human liberty and desires that his children shoiild not be 
left without a country, without a Government, without a future. 

The extraordinary subserviency of the Democratic party of the 
iSTorth to the pro-slavery doctrines of the South, and the controlling 
power whieh the representatives of tlie latter obtained over the 
former — a power which was a reproach to free labor and a scandal to 
the principles of democratic Government — were mainly attributable 
to the Ji^ssiduity with which southern politicians propagated this de- 
structive doctrine of State sovereignty, and its final adoption by the 
Democratic party. Having committed itself to this fatal heresy, it 
followed blindly the path of its southern leaders until in the begin- 



iiing of the year 18G1 its nortLcrn adherents fouud themselves 
standing upon thq edge of rebellion and civil war, and invited by 
those who had led them thither to descend into its fiery gulf. The 
deceived and betrayed masses who had followed its fortunes in the 
ITorth drew back with liorror and declared their determination to 
maintain the integrity of their country at all hazards ; l)ut even then, 
in that hour of suiircmc agony in which the destinies of the country 
trembled in the balances of fate, the recreant voice of their Presi-» 
dent was heard reasserting this false doctrine amid the recent ruin 
which it had made, and declaring that the Constitution conferred no 
power upon the Government to coerce " a sovereign State." 

Sir, no power of language at m}' command can fitly describe tlie 
great treachciy which was then comniitted against the American 
people, and I forbear, for the man, although he still moves among 
living men, has really passed away. Dante, in his journey thrinigh 
hell, relates that as he passed through that dismal region, in which 
lie beheld traitors frozen up in swaths of ice, their eyes incrusted 
with their frozen tears as in a crystal visor, he met the friar Alberigo. 
"What!" exclaimed Dante, "art thou no longer, then, among the 
living?" "Perhaps I appear to be," answered the friar, " for the 
moment any one commits a treachery like mine his soul gives up his 
body to a demon who thenceforward inliabits it in the man's likeness. 
Thou knowest Branca Doria vvho murdered his father-in-law, Zanche? 
He seems to be walking the earth still, and yet he has been in this 
place many years." "Impossible !" cried Dante ; "Branca Doria is 
still alive; he eats, drinks, and sleeps like any other man." " I tell 
thee," returned the friar, "that the soul of the man he slew had not 
reached that lake of boiling pitch in which thou sawest him ere the 
soul of his slayer was in this place, and his !)0(ly occupied by a demon 
in its stead." 

The loyal people of the iS'orth of all parties rejected with scorn 
the proposition that the Government of the United States had no 
power to compel obc-dience to its laws, and to preserve itself from 
disintegration and destruction. The answer of the people was like 
the roar of many waters, revealing the fact that the instinct of nation- 
ality was as deeply seated in tlie hearts of the American people as 
that of life and self-preservation in the bosom of human nature. The 
doctrine? of State su])remacy, culminating as it did in treason and 
rebellion, w.as exhibited in all its monstrous deformity, and people 
who had watched its tendencies and reflected upon its disastrous 
consequences began to hope that from the North at least it had dis- 
appeared forever. But as the war progressed, and party spirit, freed 
from tlie temporary paralysis which it had suflered, began again to 
display itself, with it reai)peared the old enemy of our national ex- 
existence, and this jiernicious doctrine is now, and for the- last two 
years has been the chief weapon in the hands of the party opposed 
to the Administration with which it carries on its opposition to the 
measures which are necessary for the successful prosecution of the 
war. 



This was their principal argument against the conscription law; 
and I cannot better illustrate the subject than by a brief reference to- 
it. Their desire to make use of their favorite dogma of State sov- 
ereignty against that measure led them into tlie greatest absurdities. 
'No proposition can be plainer than this, that every citizen owes mil- 
itary service to his country, if it be necessary to defend it against 
foreign invasion or internal rebellion. From the times in which the 
Roman consul or prsetor was accustomed every year to assemble in 
the Campus Marti nus all the citizens who were bound to participate 
in the formation of the four legions which they annually raised, 
down to the present time, this principle has been held by every or- 
ganized political society. The works of Montesquieu, Puffendorf, 
Grotius, Locke, Vattel, and all the writers on government perfectly 
attest it. Indeed, no nation can permanently exist without it. Car- 
thage alone among ancient States disregarded it, relying for support 
upon levies drawn from Africa, Spain, Gaul, &c. The penalty she 
paid for it was, as every school-boj' knows, the loss of her liberty 
and her existence. The duty of personal military service by the 
citizen to the State is recognized by the constitution of almost every 
State in this Union. The raising of armies by compuls'bry draft was 
a thing perfectly well known in tlje history of the several States and 
of the Revolution. The plan of General Knox, Secretary of War, 
submitted to Congress by General Washington in January, 1790, 
contemplated as liable to service all persons between the ages of 
eighteen and sixty ; and stated explicitly that; " every man of the 
proper age and ability of body is firmly bound by the^social compact 
to perform personally his proportion of military duty for the defense 
of the State." (7 i!s'iles"s Register, p. 290.) Here is a cotemporaneous 
construction of the Constitution adopted by General. Knox, and ap- 
proved by General Washington. 

Rhode Island was the last State which ratified the Constitution- 
On the 29th Maj^, 1790, their convention proposed certain amend- 
ments to the Constitution, one of which was as follows : 

"No person sbn.ll be compelled to do military duty otherwise than by voluntary enlist- 
ment except in case of general invasion, anything in the second paragraph of the sixth 
article of the Constitution, or any law made under the CDnstitutiou, to the contrary not- 
withstanding." — Eliot's Debates, 371. 

Another contemporaneous exposition, the force of which cannot 
be depreciated. On the 17th October, 1814, Mr. Monroe, then Sec- 
retary of War, with the approbation of Mr. Madison, proposed to 
Congress a plan for a compulsory di-aft, (7 Niles's Register, 137,) 
■which no doubt would liave been adopted and carried into efiect had 
not peace soon ensued thereafter. Indeed, I believe there is but one 
American document which can be cited as authority against the 
power of Congress to compel military service by a draft ; and that 
is the resolution of the Ilartford Convention in 1815. (7 ISTiles's 
Register, 307.) Yet, in the face of history, in the face of the express 
grant of power in the Constitution, and of the construction, both 



contemporaneous and subsequent, of that grant, and in tlie face of 
the solemn decision of the Supreme Court of tlie United States in 
Gibhons vs. Ogden, (9 "Wheaton, 196,) that all the poAvcrs vested by 
the Constitution in Congress are complete in themselves, and may 
be exercised to their utmost extent, and that there are no limitations 
upon them except such as are prescribed in the Constitution, we 
have heard gentlemen upon the other side of this House, day after 
day, denouncing the draft as an invasion of State sovereignty. Are 
they ignorant of the history of their own country and of its public 
men? If not, they must be aware that Mr. Calhoun himself — to 
them }(aud ignobilc nomcn — advocated the proposition that Congress 
should raise an army by a draft, expressing his views upon that sub- 
ject in his. speech in the House of licprcsentatives, January -31, 1816, 
on the motion to repeal the direct tax, as follows : 

" Although militia freshly drawn from their homes may in a moment of enthusiasm do 
great service, as at New Orleans, yet in gencial they are not calculated for service in the 
field until time is allowed them to acquire habits of discipline and subordinadnn. On 
land rjour defense ovght to depend on a regular draft from the body of tlfe peoj)1e. You will 
thus in time of war dispense with the business of recruiting, a mode of defending the 
country every M'ay uncongenial with our republican instituti ns. 1 know tliat 1 utter 
truths unpleasant to those who wish to enjoy liberty without making the efforts m-cessary 
to secure it. Her favor is never won by the cowardly, the vicious, or indolent." — Cal- 
houn's ^Yorlcs, vol. 2, p, 14G. 

Some of the most violent of the denunciations of that measure have 
come from gentlemen upon the other side of the House from J;he State 
of New York, commencing with thegetitleman from the iifth district of 
that State, [Mr. Feiix.\xi)o Wood,] who stigmatized the wur for the 
preservation of the Union as a " hellish crusade of blood and fam- 
ine," and ending with the gentleman from the thirteenth district, 
[Mr. Steele,] \Vho in his recent speech upon the national currency 
bill made the measure referred to the subject of fresh attack, de- 
nouncing it as odious, unnecessary, and oppressive, and as calculated 
to subvert the liberties of the people, and centralize power in the 
General Government. 

Have these gentlemen forgotten the history of their own State ? 
If they have not, they must remember that the first constitution of 
New York, made in 1777, declared "that it is the duty of every 
man who enjoys'the protection of society to be prepared and willing 
to defend it." They must also remember that during the second 
war ot independence, Mr. Van Buren introduced into the Senate of 
that State a bill to raise twelve thousand men by drafting, to be 
placed in the service of the United States, which after being amended 
became a law on the 24th October, 1>14. It was stigmatized as a 
conscription bill by the opposition of that day, but it was approved 
by CJovernor Tomi)kins — who was twice elected Vice President of 
the United State^^ — and sustained by the judges of the Sujireme 
Court. Nor can I suppose them to bo ignorant of the fact that the 
laws of the State of New York expressly recognize the constitu- 
tional right of the national Government to raise an army by a draft; 
the act of 1854,fpassed before the war, enacting that "all able-bodied 



white mule citizens bet\Yoen the ages of eighteen and forty-five 
3'ears, residing in this State, not exempted by the laws of the United 
States, shall be subject to military duty," (Act 1854, eh. 398, tit. 1, 
sec. 1, 1 Rev. Stat., 715,) and the same act requiring the assessors 
to include in their assessment rolls the names of all persons between 
the ages of eighteen and forty-hve years " liable to be enrolled by the 
laws of the United States," [lb., 723,) and the same act yet iriore plainly 
declaring that " whenever the President of the United States or the 
Commander-in-Chief 67;rt^/for(fe?' a draft from the militia for the public 
service, such draft shall be made in. the following manner," which 
manner is then expressed. (1 New York Rev. Statutes, 744.) 

But, Mr. Speaker, I must beg pardon of the House for this digres- 
sion in regard to the conscription law. My object in it has been 
to show the errors and absurdities into which men are driven b}' this 
phantom of State sovereignty. It might be illustrated by reference ' 
to the opposition which has been made to other measures of great 
importance, especially by that made to the national currency bill, 
which many intelligent gentlemen on this side of the House refused 
to support unless the capital of the national banks should be sub- 
jected to State taxation, which, to say nothing of the inequality which 
such a provision would introduce, would place the very existence of 
institutions created by the national Legislature and intended to be 
entirely under its control and regulation at the mercy of political 
parties in thirty-four different Legislatures. Indeed, scarcely any 
national measure of importance can be started liere that is not des- 
tined to be fatally crippled in its usefulness or absolutely turned into 
stone by this Medusa's head. The cry of centralization and consol- 
idation is raised bj' shallow minds against everything of an exclu- 
sively national character which originates here. From a certain school 
of theorists and politicians this is to be expected. Their political 
cogitations revolve upon an axis, but have no orbits. The axis is 
State sovereignty, around which they spin continually but make no 
progress. Sir, the people of the United States have by their Consti- 
tution made themselves a nation, and such, by the blessing of God, 
the}' intend to remain. It is time that theirRepresentatives should com- 
prehentf this great fact. There is in this country but one sovereignty. 
That resides in the people of the LTnited States in their collective 
capacity; and of that sovereignty there is but one organ, and that 
organ is the Government of the United States, consisting of its three 
factors. Congress, Judiciary,' and Executive. 

If any one shall ask what this discussion lias to do with the present 
measure before the House, I answer, much. For in this great fact, 
that in the national Government alone is deposited the sovereignty of 
the people, lies the solution of the difhculties which lie in our path 
in rebuilding that portion of our ijiheritance which the rebellion has 
laid waste. The powers delegated by the people of the United States 
to the national Government arc^sufficient for the great work we have 
before us. • 



8 

That the time has come in which Congress in the exercise of the 
great powers conferred upon it by the people should settle and author- 
itatively declare the terms and conditions upon which the people of 
the rebellious districts should be restored to their State pi'iviieges 
and resume their just relations to the national Government docs not 
admit of doubt. Large portions of territory have been wrested from 
the rebellion. Order, law, and the national authority must be re- 
establislied in those regions. The people who inhabit them, or at 
least such of them as are willing to return to their allegiance to the 
•United States, and to acknowledge its sovereignty and obey its laws, 
should be restored with the least possible delay to the privileges of 
representative Government. Humanity denumds this; the pacifica- 
tion of the countr}- demands this; the princii>les of our political sys- 
tem demand it; justice, expediency, and the welfare of the whole 
country alike demand it. Passing events admonish us- that we can 
no longer delay the exercise of our powers in tliis respect without 
justly subjecting ourselves to the charge of neglecting both our own 
duty and the highest interests of the people. Here alone resides the 
power. Congress alone can enact the laws which are to reconstruct 
the political societies in which the fundamental principle of loyalty 
to the national Government and obedience to its laws and respect for 
its authority has been obliterated by the violence of rebellion. The 
President of the United States cannot enact these laws, and it is in 
my opinion a reproach to Congress that by its inaction up to the pres- 
ent time it has rendered it necessary that the national Executive 
should \^c obliged, by a sense of obligation to the public welfare to 
resort to temporary expedients for the preservation of public order 
and the assertion of national supremacy in those districts and States 
which the valor of our soldiers has redeemed from the insulting dom- 
ination of the rebel army. 

With regard to what has been done, the pressing necessities of the 
case demanded Executive action in the absence of action here. The 
President would have violated liis obligations to the country if he 
had neglected to re-establish the authority of the United States in the 
regions which have been recovered from the public cnemy,»and to 
restore to the people of those regions the protection of the United 
States, and of a temporary government administered by those who 
represented its authority, and wgtyld see tliat it was enforced and re- 
spected. What has been done ih that respect by the President I be- 
lieve to have been well done, wisely done, and patriotically done, and 
to have been demanded alike b}' the necessity of the case and for the 
welfare of the liepublic. But it is the duty of Congress to ])ut an 
end to the necessity which existed for Executive action, and by the 
exercise of that exclusive authority over the subject which belongs- to 
it by the Constitution to relieve the Executive ^iagistrate as speeilily 
as possible from an}' further action or responsibility in the matte-r. 
To us, and to us alone, belong the duty and the re3i)onsibility of de- 
claring the terms upon which the communities which have revO'ltc<i 



9 

from tlie United States, and which have by tlie success of our arms 
been again subjected to its autliority, shall be restored again to the 
privileges and immunities wliich belong to American citizens. To us 
alone belongs the making of the laws which are to accomplish this 
great object, and which are to place upon secure foundations the 
future authority and prosperity of the United States. Let ns no 
longer delay the performance of this great duty, but enter upon it 
w'ith a determination so to build that this great house of freedom 
shall not again be undermined or shaken by the evil intiuences wliieh 
have caused the present disaster. 

Sir, we have heard much said upon the question whether the rebel 
States are now in or out of the Union. Much ingenuity and many 
arguments have been expended upon it. But ?n my judgment such 
discussions are as useless as those in which some ancient lawyers 
have indulged, in their efforts to determine where the remainder is 
in case of a lease for life remainder to the right heirs of J. S. then 
living; whether it is in abeyance, ingremio legis ov in nicbibus. There 
are well-founded objections to its being in either place, and so there 
may be to any direct answer given to tiie question with which gen- 
tlemen have exercised their intellectual faculties. This has been a 
favorite question with the gentlemen who sit on the opposite side of 
this House, and they have built lengthy arguments and wasted much 
breath upon the answers to it so obligingly given upon this side. If 
it is answered that the -rebel States are in the Union they immedi- 
ately respond that they are then entitled to all the advantages of that 
position, and to the protection of the Constitution, and that their 
State organizations have been unafl-ected by the rebellion. If it be 
answered that they are out of the Union, they immediatel}' demand 
by what authority, then, we can treat them as rebels. It matters not 
in cither case that the conclusion drawn is based upon a bald and 
familiar fallac}'. In both cases the answer is alike favorable to their 
friends. 

Whatever difficulties such nnnds may have in regard to tlie 
present condition of. tlie rebel States, this much is jilaiii to all who 
deny the right of secession and who believe in the right of the 
people of the United States to preserve their government from 
destruction and their country from dismemberment, namely, that 
both the territory which has been subjected to rebel control and the 
people who inhabit it /ire lawfully subject to the authority of the 
United States, and must be made to respect and obey it. The ques- 
tion before us is, in what manner and upon what conditions the peo- 
ple of those States ma}'-, as rapidly as by the blessing of God upon 
our arms the national sovereignty is re-established in those regions, 
be restored to the right of self-government and of representation in 
the national Legislature. 

That in doing tliis it is our duty to adopt such safeguards as may 
be necessary to protect the country against future outbreaks of a 
similar character, to insure permanent peace and tranquillity, and to 



10 

settle upon secure foundations the authority of tlic national Gov- 
erntneiit, wouhl seem to be a proposition too clear for debate. If we 
neglect these precautions we are false to the great trust which the 
peojile have reposed in our hands. Much has been said from time to 
time in regard to the subjugation of the South, and it has been made 
the theme of mucl) party clamor. But I am not aware tliat either 
the Government or any one else has proposed more in this respect 
than to re-establish the authority of the United States in that [>ortion 
of its domain, and to exact such conditions from its people, as pre- 
liminary to their restoration to the fall rights of citizensliip, as may 
be necessary to tlio safety of our rc[)ublican system. These condi- 
tions are to be prescribed by the representatives of the people, assem- 
bled in the Congress of the United States. If to be restored to the 
natiomd protection, to l)e subjected to the national authority, to enjoy 
the privileges of Americaii citizenship and the blessings of repre- 
sentative government, upon conditions entirely compatible with })er- 
sonal and political liberty, but involving umpialified allegiance to 
the supreme authority of the Union and the total extirpation of the 
very root of the rel)ellion — if this be subjugation, then they mnst 
pass beneath the 3'oke. 

To reward the poi-petrators of this great ci-ime against civil liberty 
by welcoming tliLMii back to the Union without securities for the 
present or pledges for the future; to place the destinies of the 
countrj- in the hands of their I'epi'csentatives .without, any safeguard 
against the repetition of the ti'eason which has desolated- the land 
Avitli fire and sword, which has created burdens under which our pos- 
terity must toil for generations, which has filled a continent with 
groans of anguish, and nuide our sufi'erlngs the jest and mockery of 
every despot in the world — this would indeed be a folly unecpialedin 
ihehistor}' of time, a crime against the living and the dead. Every 
soldier who has given his life for this great cause, from Big Bethel 
to Gettysburg, and who died that his country uiight live, would 
upbraid us from his heroic gi-ave for an infidelity so "great as this. 
No, sir. They who have at such great cost saved the present, de- 
mand that we should make the future secure. All the sufferings and 
sacrifices of the past, all the struggles of the present, all the hopes 
of the future implore, miy, demand of us that as the rebel armies 
are forced back, and the territory of the Union is reclaimed from 
the rebellion, such conditions shall be imposed and such measures 
enacted that the peace which is attained .^hall, in its glory and its 
l)ermanency, be proportioned to the self-devotion, the sufferings, and 
the heroism by which it was achieved. If we fail in this we fail 
alike in i)ur duty to our country and our gratitude to those who 
have saved it from disrni)tion, debasement, and perpetual war. 

Upon what conditions, then, if successful in the present struggle, 
must we insist, as preliminary to the reorgau'ization of local govern- 
ment, in the rebel States in accord with the Government of the 
United States? There are three which in my opinion are indispen- 



11 

sable to our self-respect and our future security ; and it is because 
tbese tliree conditions are contained in the bill now before the House 
that I shall give, it m^^ support, content to abide by such alteration in 
the details of the measure proposed as Congress may in its wisdom 
see fit to adopt, whii5 these conditions, which I regard as the essen- 
tial features of any plan for the restoration of tlie rebel States to 
their proper position in the American Union, are preserved: 

1. Any governments there organized must be based upon the prin- 
ciple of unconditional iind perpetual loyalty to the Goveriiment of 
the United States, subordination to its power, and submission to its 
Gonstitution and laws. 

2. The institution of slaverj" in those States must be totally extir- 
pated and forever prohibited by their fundamental law. 

3. Compulsory repudiation of the rebel debt. 

The local governments in the rebel States have been violently 
driven from their natural and proper orbits and brought into destruc- 
tive collision with the national Government around which they have 
heretofore peacefully revolved. All their powers and resources have 
been perverted from their true purposes and concentrated in the un- 
natural war which thej' have waged against the Government of the 
United States. The prosecution of that war has been the chief object 
of their legislation for the last three 3'ears. They have attempted 
not only to break that bond of eternal allegiance which bound them 
to the General Government, but to substitute for it an alliance with 
another and hostile government, the creature of their own treasona- 
ble revolt, and supported it by their governors, their representatives, 
their judiciary, their supplies, their money, and their men. They 
have in their legislative acts, in the proclamations of their governors, 
in the judgm,ents of their cou^'ts, by every public officer in ther ser- 
vice, and by every function at their command, forsworn their allegi- 
ance to the United States, banished its officers, seized its proj^erty, 
reviled its sovereignty, and made war upon its loyal citizens. Every 
officer, civil and military, in their service is a sworn enemy of the 
United States. 

Are governments constituted in this manner, thus administered 
and thus officered, to be received into the bosom of the Union, un- 
washed of their great crime and prepared to commence again upon 
the first favorable opportunity their schemes of disunion and civil 
war? Have all the sacrifices to which we have submitted been made 
for this? Is it for this that our soldiers have shed their blood and 
given up their lives upon a hundred battle-fields which their courage 
and constancy have made immortal ? Is it for this that we have sub- 
mitted to foreign insult, to domestic feuds, to domestic sorrows, to 
pecuniary distress and all the cloud of horrors through which we 
have passed ? History presents no example of a political blindness 
and infatuation greaterthan that which such a course of action would 
involve. The safety of the country, its future repose, the continu- 
ance of the Union, and the firm establishment of our political system 



12 

imperatively demand that in the reorganization of local governments 
in the rebel States the foundations of such governments must rest 
upon the principle of submission to the Constitution and laws of the 
XTnitod States. This must be the chief corner-stone of the whole 
structure. Any other will be but a foundation of sand, ^YlliL■h will 
again imperil the whole fabric of American liberty. 

In order to accomplish this efl:ect.ually this principle must be in- 
corporated in their organic law and assume the character of an au- 
thoritative deel: ration by the peo[»Ie themselves. The seventh sec- 
tion of the bill now' before the House contains a provision for this 
purpose, and is in my opinion a necessary condition of any |)lan for 
the proposed object. It is also necessary to guard the elective fran- 
chise and the privilege of holding office in those. States against the 
intrusion and treachery of all who have in any sense been leaders in 
the present rebellion. For this purpose prudence requires that all 
who have held office ui^der the [)retended rebel government should 
be excluded from these privileges. It does not, however, appear to 
me to be necessary to exclude all who have held otfice under the 
State governments. The chief officers of these governments,' such 
as Governors and other high officers, all of whom have been chief 
actors in the rebellion and have j)romoted it b}- every moans in their 
power, should be excluded ; but I do not believe that either neces- 
sity or sound policj' requires the exclusion of the lai-ge number of 
ministerial subordinates who have participated in the adiiiinisti'ation , 
of local affiiirs, who have not been leaders of the rebellion, and who 
are willing to return to their allegiance to the United States. 

I would not increase unnecessarily these restrictions. I would not 
extend them one whit beyond what is absolutely, required for the 
public safety. I for one am willing to extend to the people of those 
States, upon their returning to their allegiance, every benefit, and of , 
restoring to them every right which is consistent with tlie permanent 
re-establishment of the authority of the United States. It is our duty, 
in my opinion, to make the path to this object as easy as possible. 
Any such path, containing the necessary conditions for this purpose, 
will to most of them appear rugged and humiliating. This is the 
necessary result of their failure to overthrow the Government of the 
United State's. But it would appear to me to be wise and just and 
humane and politic to place no unnecessary difficulties or obstacles 
in the way of an early and complete j)acification of the whole coun- 
try. For these reasons I wouhl prefer to see some modifications of 
this feature of the seventh section of the bill. I believe that every 
essential purpose would be answered by excluding from office and 
the elective franchise all officers of the pretended confederacy, and 
such high officers of State, iinder the local governments, as have been 
chiefly instrumental in aiding and abetting the rebellion. To all 
other classes of the free white male population of these States I would 
confidently surrender the privileges of the elective franchise and the 
same rights of citizenship which we ourselves enjoy, upon their lay- 



•13 

ing down tlielr arms and returning to their true allegiance. Notliing, 
I believe, could be further from the wishes of the people of the United 
States than to deprive the masses of the Southern people, who are 
■willing to return to their allegiance to the Government of their 
fathers, of one solitary right which they themselves enjo}^. 

The compulsory repudiation of the rebel debt, by which I mean 
all debts df the pretended confederate States and State debts con- 
tracted solely for the prosecution of the war against the United States, 
is a measure which, in my opinion, is demanded on the part of the 
United States, if successful in the present struggle, not only by a just 
self-respect, and as a proper and necessary vindication of its own sov- 
ereignty, but in order that it may remain a lasting monument of the 
wickedness and folly of the present rebellion. It is also a just 
and merited punishment to be inflicted upon those who have lent 
substantial aid to the rebellion; and it has the further merit that it 
reaches with its retributive justice those foreign speculators in our 
sufferings who, at a safe distance, have wickedly connived at, en- 
couraged, and aided in the attempt to break in pieces our nationality 
and to destroy our free institutions. This feature of the bill meets 
vwith my entire approvul. I wonld not, however, in doing this, un- 
settle any State debt which may have been contracted for the pur- 
pose only of carrying on the civil afiairs oi" the State, and which had 
not for its object the prosecution of the war or the strengthening of 
the pretended confederacy. I would therefore prefer to see the third 
condition specified in the seventh section of the bill so modified that 
it should declare that no debt of the pretended confederate States 
and no debt contracted by the State for the purpose of prosecuting 
the war against the United States or of giving aid to its enemies, 
shall be recognized or paid by the State. 

That slavery must, as a necessary consequence of this war, forever 
disappear from the American Republic I believe to be a conclusion 
long since reached by a large majority of the loyal people of the 
United States. So far as relates to the border States, which have 
nobly stood b}' their allegiance to the national Government, I am not 
in favor of nuy interference with it, because under our present Con- 
stitution we have no such right of interference, and honor and duty 
alike require -that we should refrain from such interference. I am in 
favor of leaving to the people of those States the entire control and 
management of this question. I fully believe that the}' will find it 
for their interest and welfare at no great distance of time to make 
their institutions in this respect correspond with those of the free 
States. The recent action of the people of Marjdand upon tliis sub- 
ject, by which, on the 6th day of April, they declared themselves by 
a large majority in favor of immediate emancipation, and f)rever des- 
troyed the political signiiicance of Mason and Dixon's line, gives as- 
surance, I believe, of what will be the ultimate action of the people 
of all the border States in reference to this matter. But however this 
may be, I regard it as a question entirely. for themselves; and while 



14 

the Constitution remains as it is and they adhere steadfastly to thji 
allegiance, I believe it to be our duty to abstain from any interfi'- 
enee except it be at their own request by way of aidinf»- them in tie 
great reform. 

But as regards the rebel States I hold an entirely different opinio!: 
and this leads me to answer the interrogatory of the honorable o-el- 
tleman from Ulinois [Mr. J. C. Allen] when he asks from whenii 
Congress derives the power to frame tbese provisions and to dictai; 
what shall be the character of the constitution and laws of thoj^ 
States. It is certainly a most singular and extraordinary doctriil 
which seems to be held by some members of this House, includiip 
the gentleman from Illinois, that the people of the States who hai:; 
thrown off all the restraints of the Constitution, who liave abjure j 
its ties, and who have for three years waged war for the purpose ' 
overthrowing it, should be entitled to demand its protection whi 
engaged in armed hostility to it. It is as if an alien enemy who h;i 
broken and trampled upon all existing treaties should demand in tl 
midst of flagrant war their enforcement in his own favor. Sir, tl 
people of those States have placed themselves beyond the pale of tl 
Constitution. They have no right to appeal to one of its provision 
They are estopped by their own acts frum claiming the protection < 
a single liiie in that instrument. They have placed themselvc 
towards this Government in a state of war, and we have a rio-ht t 
use against them all powers which we might lawfully use against an 
belligerent, and among those powers is the right to demand, if sue 
cesstul in that war, whatever conditions this Go\'ernment may choos 
to impose for its own safety and security hereafter. This is a part c 
the law of nations. 

By what right did the allied powers restore Louis XVIII to th 
throneof France after the defeat of Bonaparte? By what rio-ht dii 
Sardinia, more recent]}^ annex Lombardy to its doniinions after th^ 
defeat of the Austrians at Solferino ? It belongs, sir, to the success: 
ful belligerent to dictate the terms of peace ; and when those terma 
are not only consistent with humanity but imperatively demandec 
for our own securitj^ who shall arraign us for demanding them ? B3 
the laws of war we have the right to emancipate the slaves of oui 
eueniies, and by the law of nations we have the right to demand o, 
a defeated belligerent such changes in his own political condition as 
are necessary for our own protection. ' These are principles which 
have been declared and acted upon by all nations. They are principle^ 
which have been substantially asserted by the Supreme Court of this 
coimtry in its decision in the prize cases." (2 Black's Rep.) They are 
principles which are now, for the first time, contravened in argument 
here. Nay, they are principles which are acknowledged and publicly 
avowed by the rebels themselves. Yet we are told here that the Gov- 
ernment of the United States has no right to impose conditions upon 
people who have taken up arms and waged relentless war a"-ainstit; 
who have invaded their tx^rritory and captured their ships upon the 



15 

high seas. Away witli sucli sophistry and such empty siihtifuges. 
The people of the rebellious States have, in the language'of the Su- 
preme Court, in the ease to which I have referred, "cast off their 
allegiance and made war on their Government, and are none the less 
enemies because they are traitors," If they are enemies, then .we 
have as regards them all the rights of enemies, and among these 
rights ncjne is better established than the right, if we are victorious, 
to dictate such terms as regards their future political condition as 
may be necessary for our own safety and tranquillity. 

But if the gentleman is really anxious to lind in the Constitution 
an expressed warrant for our proposed action, he may find it not only 
in that clause which declares that the United States shall guaranty 
jjfo every State in the Union a republican form of government, and 
"'Jhall protect each of them against invasion, but he can draw it also 
irom that great reservoir of powers in the first article, which gives 
.to Congress the right to make all laws which shall be necessary and 
proper for carrying into execution all powers vested by the Consti- 
tution in the Government of the United States, or in any department 
or office thereof; for among those powers is a power to require the 
laws to be faithfully executed, and if the laws of the United States 
cannot be faithfull}' executed in those revolted districts without these 
fundamental changes in their condition, which changes we have also 
by the laws of war the, right to impose, let the gentleman upon this 
ground satisfy his cravings -for constitutional authority and vote for 
this measure, which is necessary, not only for the continued and 
peaceful execution of the laws, but also necessary in order to pre- 
serve a perfect Union, to establish justice, insure domestio tran- 
quillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general wel- 
fare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity. 

[Here the hammer fell.] 

■ Mr. IIOLMAjST. Mr. Speaker, I move that the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania have permission to proceed with his remarks. 

The SPEAKER. The Chair hears no objection. The gentleman 
from Pennsylvania will proceed. 

Mr. THAYER. Mr. Speaker, the voice of the people of the 
United States cannot be mistaken. They demand of us, their Rep- 
resentatives, that the institution of human slavery which has from 
the beginning been our nation-al reproach, the fruitful source of sec- 
ftonal enmity and strife, the obstacle to the development of one half 
of our territorj^, the secret enemy which has for seventy years sown 
our vineyard with tares and brambles, which has alienated brethren 
•of the same blood, which has proscribed education, fomented dis- 
cord, encouraged opposition to our republican system, weakened the 
ties of national allegiance, and at last arrayed itself in bloody war 
against the Government, shall be forever blotted out in the rebel 
States, and that upon its ruins shall be written a legend like that 
which indignant France wrote over the gateway of rebellious Lyons, 



10 

" Slavery made war upon the republic ; slavery \s no more !" They 
demand this as the right of war against the public enemy. They 
demand it in the name of that very Constitution which is sought 
here to be made its shelter and its shield. They demand it as the 
only adequate compensation for the sacrifices whicli the}' have made 
and the sufferings which they have endured. They demand it in 
the name of liberty and humanit}'. They demand it as the only 
pledge of future union and tranquillity. They demand it for their 
own peace and safety, and for the repose and security of their chil- 
dren. Already its grim and terrible form, weakened by its wounds, 
begrinimed with the dust of battle, and covered with the blood of 
brave men which has been shed in this sanguinary war, cowers and 
reels before the banners of the Republic. As it falls let it hear ring- 
ing in its ears the decree for its e-xtermination pronounced here by 
the Jxepresentatives ot the peo[ile. 

Sir, 1 rejoice that I shall be able to say, when I go home, to my 
constituents, that whatever differences of opinion in regard to public 
affairs ma}- prevail among the members of this House, I believe that 
those among them wlio are not true and loyal to their country at this 
critical moment of its existence are few in number and insignilicant 
in infiuence. Greater responsibilities never rested upon the repre- 
sentatives of a free people than those which weigh upon us. If we 
perform the sacred trust which has been confided to us, with courage 
and fidelity, we shall receive the thanks of a grateful people, and 
will not be unremetnbered in that bi'ight and happy future when our 
vast and fertile country', stretching from sea to sea, and from the 
frigid to the torrid zone, with her millions of rejoicing people, shall 
come forth from her present trials, purified and strengthened b}' the 
terrible ordeal, and put on her garments of peace again. When the 
storm-clouds of the present disastrous time shall have cleared away, 
and our coujitry shall emerge from them clothed with new vigor, 
with renewed strength, and with indestructible unity, History will 
take up her pen, and, in the clear sunshine of that proud and pros- 
perous day, record on her enduring tablets the names of those who 
were true to its liberty, its unit/, and its glory. And she will also, 
I am compelled to add, at the same time write iu her eternal record 
the severe and unalterable verdict of posterit}' against those who, 
without the excuse of passion or tlie temptation of self-interest, al^an- 
doncd in the moment of her most imminent and deadly peril, the 
country which gave them birth ; wh'o derided her great struggle for 
self-preservation ; who would have struck from her hand the sword 
which she had drawn to protect her honor and her life; who sympa- 
thized with her foes, and gave them moral if not material aid ; who 
contem}>lated with unconeerti the threatened dissolution of the Gov- 
ornn;ent and the country, and whose voices were only heard iu this 
hall as the echoes of those of her enemies. 



Mc<;iu k Wmnaow 'Vrlntora and StereoUpers, 368 E sire t, WaahlDgton, D C. 



